New Mexico, Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

We decided to spend the week in Albuquerque and check out the Balloon Fiesta.

We stayed at the Fiesta RV Park that was about a block from the events. There were over 2,000 campers. We paid $35 US per night to dry camp (no hook-ups). There was a presidential site overlooking the field but it cost $175 US per night.

We took Maddie to the Balloon Museum. Lots of interesting exhibits and history on ballooning.

On the first day of the fiesta, we rode our bikes down the canal beside the field at 6am and watched the balloons launch.

That evening we went to the Twilight Twinkle Glow, Laser Show and Fireworks. Below are a few pictures from the Twilight Twinkle Glow.

The announcers would do a count down and all the balloons would run their burners for 30 seconds. They also would have all the pilots turn their burners off and on so they twinkled.

The next morning we went to the event field to see the mass ascension. Over 650 balloons taking off one after another!

It was awesome being up close to the balloons with their crew setting up.

Here are a few of the shape balloons that were at the event.

All the balloonists had trading cards that they were passing out. They are like baseball trading cards with all the stats on them. Maddie collected 30 cards! There were from all over the world…several from Canada.

The mass ascension underway.

It was complete chaos on the field but the referees (also known as zebras) orchestrated the event perfectly.

On our last day, I sat on top of our trailer and videotaped the mass ascension.

I could have hi-fived the pilot as he passed me! Another balloon landed next to us.

The balloons landed throughout the RV Park. We heard that sometimes the pilots accidentally land on RVs.

While I was filming, Bob and Maddie checked out the balloons landing in the RV Park.